Purpose – Smart materials (SMs) have the potential for facilitating active disassembly (AD). Select SMs are used in the design of devices to aid product disassembly. The purpose of this paper is to compare different AD approaches and highlight future work and potential.Design/methodology/approach – This work is a survey of the collated AD research employing only Smart and “made Smart” materials work from various published work in the field from companies and academia since its original invention. The introduction gives general discussion of AD with cost implications and how the technology could offer very lean dismantling. An overview of the history of the work is given with the context of the implications for the need for a technology like AD to retain critical materials.Findings – Besides a survey to date, comparisons were made of each AD technology application highlighting advantages and challenges. Comparisons were also made prior to this in alternative disassembly strategies to give context to the potential usefulness of the technology.Practical implications – Only AD with SMs or “made Smart” were highlighted with some considerations for potential candidates.

Originality/value – A survey of AD work only employing SMs and “made-Smart” materials to date. Comparisons of each AD application were made highlighting advantages and challenges. Comparisons were made between AD and alternative disassembly strategies to give context to the potential usefulness of the technology. The conclusion included an overview of work with consideration for future work. A candidate technology with the most potential was discussed.